A petition on the website Change.org takes issue with Buncombe County Schools’ July 28 decision to alter its plans for reopening public schools to follow what the district calls ‘Plan B Beyond.’ As of this posting, the petition had received 634 signatures.
The text of the petition reads:
On July 28th 2020 with two and a half weeks’ notice before the first day of school, The Buncombe County School Board changed their re-opening plan from plan B (a hybrid mix of in person instruction with the option of parents electing to keeping their students at home under 100% virtual instruction) to what equates to plan C (100% virtual instruction) while still allowing County Employees to send their children to school.
This was a reversal of the county’s stated plan of opening with the states mandated plan B that parents had been notified about, planning for, and polled on. The vote was based on a recommendation from the superintendent of buncombe county schools and the meeting took place without allowing public comment.
The Superintendent noted that during head start they demonstrated that teachers were able to instruct in person, get students to comply with mask mandates and provide a safe environment for education trough temperature checks, exposure screening and coaching to the extent they even conducted a fire drill where social distancing was observed.
As stated in the meeting when polled buncombe county school parents overwhelmingly planned to send their students to school by 61% with 39% stating they were opting for 100% virtual instruction from home. The board in a 4/3 split vote approved moving forward with Plan B+ which is summarized below.
K-8 students will attend 2 days in person the first week of the school year and will then have 100% virtual instruction from home. 9-12th grade students will attend 2 weeks on campus and then will have 100% virtual instruction from home.
As many school parents have been out of and recently returned to work or being essential employees and not qualifying for childcare assistance this poses many problems.
Working parents will now be tasked with paying for additional child care as virtual instruction, primarily k-5 students, will need to be facilitated and closely monitored to ensure the student is able to access the instruction as well as then taking the place of the teacher in the home. In a perfect world parents would be able to tell their workplace that they cannot attend due to the challenges of educating their children however many parents in buncombe county do not have that luxury and cannot afford to hire child care to mount that task.
There is increasing concern for the health and development of children who spend excessive amounts of time utilizing devices such as I pad’s, Laptop computers and cell phones. Distance learning will increase the amount of screen time children will be having.
School offers time for educational play, pursuit of the arts and exercise that disadvantaged students will not be able to effectively get at home.
Additionally, many disadvantaged students rely on school breakfast and lunches to receive quality nutrition. There is also the consideration of children in abusive living situations for whom school is their safe space and a much-needed reprieve from mental, physical, or other abusive stress.
Finally, the American College of Pediatrics has clearly stated; both historically and recently that quality, in-person instruction is vital to the development and education of school aged children.
While some at risk students and families do not wish for their children to attend in person, they have the option to learn from home under the NC Executive order. We do not feel that Children should be forced to attend if they do not feel safe, we simply demand that these career politicians understand that virtual education is simply not an option for many Buncombe County parents.
For those reasons we the undersigned Buncombe County Parents request that the school board reverse this decision. Parents were polled for input and ignored. This plan of re-opening will increase the metrics of unemployment and poverty. This elected board was elected to represent the will of the people, providing quality and safe educational environments and they went against the will of the people.
Additionally, if the board refuses to reverse this decision, made without public comment and with short notice then we would seek legal representation to file an injunction against the plan change and for restitution of all child care costs for buncombe county parents affected.
Our elected leaders work for us and should be taking their direction from the parents that they reached out to for polling and they are not.
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